Chapter 13 - THE SECRET FROM THE PAST
We stayed at the cabin through the day, building fires, securing doors, planning.
Elara told us the full story then—how she discovered she was pregnant shortly after her first husband abandoned her. How she realized she was carrying Jared’s child, the result of a brief, secret affair years before she married me. How shame and fear silenced her. How she married me and fell truly in love, terrified that the truth would cost her everything.
“I planned to tell you on his birthday,” she said, staring into the fire. “I wanted to wait until you loved him so much that nothing could take him from you. I thought that would soften the blow. But then Vivian began suspecting. Watching. Threatening. And I ran out of time.”
“You should have told me,” Jared said quietly. “I would have stepped away. Elara… you knew me. You knew I would never force my way into his life.”
“I didn’t know what you would do,” she whispered. “I didn’t know what Adrian would do. I was trapped between two truths, both equally dangerous.”
That evening, I called the detective. What he said sent ice through my veins.
“Vivian is gone. The lawyer broke her out of custody this morning. They are both missing. And Adrian—they know where the cabin is. Vivian had this address in her personal records.”
May you like
I stood up sharply. Elara and Jared looked at me.
“They are coming,” I said. “Tonight.”
